Stumbling soaking-wet into a restaurant is not how one expects to be introduced to a great meal. But it was 10 p.m., an unexpected rain had rolled into Hollywood, and we were post-movie, pre-long weekend hungry.

Walking down Hollywood Boulevard, we noticed a cluster of people standing around what we thought was a side entrance to the Roosevelt Hotel. In a way, it was just that; the entrance to the hotel bar, Twenty-Five Degrees.

As we were seated at the bar and our eyes adjusted to the non-neon lights, we realized that we were in for something of a burger and fry revelation.

At first look, Twenty-Five Degrees is a bar-meets-diner in the heart of Hollywood. And the flocked velvet walls, black leather, and polished chrome add to the old Hollywood-meets-modern-diner-style of the place.

Booths are hard to come by, especially during peak hours, but the vantage point from the bar (where the full menu is served) was fun. The three television screens above it were playing Lord of the Rings, which prompted a dramatic reading of subtitles from one or two of our group until the food came.

We started with an order of onion rings and fries (the half and half combination), big enough to feed at least four people. It came attractively presented in a white Chinese takeout style box; onion rings on top, fries on the bottom, with little squeeze bottles of ketchup and mustard, prompting artistic saucing displays from our little group. The onion rings were perfectly cooked; breaded in the lightest, crispest, almost tempura-style breading. The fries were excellent as well, though by the time we fought our way through the onion rings, down towards the middle of the box where they were hidden, some of them had taken on the texture of French fries that had been sitting too long. They were, however, perfectly seasoned. On a subsequent visit I ordered the fries alone and they had the crisp, perfect texture that I suspect they would have had if we hadn’t had to dig for them.

At some point during our French fry feeding frenzy, our burgers arrived. Sure, Twenty-Five Degrees serves salads and soups, and even a hot dog, but watching big, juicy burgers parading in front of us at the bar and ordering something else just felt wrong. There are two options for burgers at Twenty-Five Degrees; pick from one of their fantastic signature burgers or design your own.

One person in our party was feeling a little less creative and had the number-two burger, a beef burger with roasted tomato, crispy proscuitto, buratta cheese, and pesto, cooked to a perfectly juicy medium rare. While I loved the combination of beef, proscuitto, tomato and the cheese, I wasn’t a big fan of the pesto in the dish. It added an interesting set of flavors, but its assertive flavor took away from the fantastic beef and pork flavor that the burger would have otherwise possessed.

The more health conscious member of our group created a turkey burger with smoked mozzarella cheese, roasted tomato, caramelized onions, and barbecue sauce. It was the juiciest turkey burger I have ever had and, thanks to the combination of smoked cheese and fantastic barbecue sauce, was also the meatiest tasting turkey burger I have ever had. I almost forgot it wasn’t beef.

My burger was beef, done medium rare, with bacon, jalapeno, caramelized onions, and their chipotle sauce. I found that the bite of the jalapeno and the chipotles in the creamy sauce cut the richness of the bacon and the beef, and that the combination of the sauce and the juices from the burger soaked nicely into the fantastic brioche roll that they serve their burgers on.

All too soon, though, it was time to stumble back into the rainy Los Angeles night, stuffed to the gills, warm, and content, thanks to the delicious, gigantic burgers that Twenty Five Degrees had to offer. It is now a new favorite for late night dining (being open 24 hours a day helps), and for dramatic readings of movies, good, thick milkshakes and malts, and burgers worth writing home about.

Twenty Five Degrees Restaurant
7000 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, CA 90028
Tel: (323) 785-7244
www.25degreesrestaurant.com

-Written by Kate Holzhauer (kathrynholzhauer@gmail.com)